Need ds to take some digestive enzymes on empty stomach, but he is constantly eating

[mommyshoppinghabit]

I just bought some digestive enzymes, two kinds, both the kind you take w/food and the kind that needs to be taken on an empty stomach. I'm having trouble w/the second one as you need to wait at least a half hour, but more optimally, an hour after you've taken it to eat anything and it needs to be taken at least two hours after he eats and it need to be done twice a day, but more optimally, three times. I think I can stave him off in the morning from eating breakfast for half hour to 45 minutes after he wakes up, but then the rest of the day, there is no chunk of time where he is able to keep from eating for more than two hours. He is four. Anyone have any tips for what to say to him/do?

[mamafish9]

Yeah, we've had that problem! Is this candex or proteases? The only time those work for us is before bed. Also, they work "less" well with food chasing after them, but food even an hour after is OK.

What are you using the between meal enzymes for, maybe we can help with some options.

[ASusan]

Eh,. I asked my chiro about this (he did nutritional stuff, too, and was the one who suggested/prescribed digestive enzymes for me) -- he said it really didn't matter that much. The impression I came away with was, the closer you took them to food (before or after) , the more they would contribute to digesting that food. The further away (in time), the more they would help with clearing up other things that needed to be "digested." I was taking them after surgery to speed up recovery .

[mommyshoppinghabit]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Yeah, we've had that problem! Is this candex or proteases? The only time those work for us is before bed. Also, they work "less" well with food chasing after them, but food even an hour after is OK.

What are you using the between meal enzymes for, maybe we can help with some options.

I bought two from Enzymedica, Digest Gold and Virastop 2x. The Virastop is the one that needs to be taken on an empty stomach but now am realizing this is under their "therapeutic" category, so now in rethinking, I may not need this at all since ds's problem is localized (he has abdominal pain right around his small intestine) not systemic. I called the company yesterday and they said the reason it need to be taken on an empty stomach is so it can cross into the blood and act throughout the body. I guess it couldn't hurt though. The rep said he only needs a quarter capsule per day, so maybe instead of giving it to him in two separate doses. I'll just give it to him in the morning, when I know he can wait a little bit before eating breakfast.

[mamafish9]

The virastop can help with viruses or yeast lodging in the gut as well. But localized abdominal pain like that could be a lot of reasons - food reaction is another possibility.

[mommyshoppinghabit]

I started a food diary for him hoping I could see a pattern but these days, it's pretty much constant low-grade pain (according to him, tho sometimes I wonder if he says "my tummy hurts" by default even when it doesn't.